subject: What Should You Look For In An Online Medical Transcription School? [print this page] The trouble with any sort of online school is that it's not always easy to tell if they're legitimate. Setting up a professional looking site is incredibly easy. You just need a professional looking logo and layout, and there are a lot of website designers who can provide that to a site owner for a reasonable fee. Some site owners even do it on their own.
This is a problem when you're trying to find a good school to learn medical transcription at. A quick glance is not enough to tell the legitimate schools from the frauds. How do you figure it out?
AHDI Approval
The simplest way is to check for AHDI Approval. AHDI is an organization of medical documentation professionals, and they only give their approval to those schools which meet their fairly strict criteria. Some fly by night program that's more into your money than your education isn't going to make the list.
Course Description
While you may also be able to request more information by mail, good schools have their course description right on their website. This helps you decide which program offers enough and is challenging enough to meet your needs.
Statistics
Job placement rates are a great statistic to see from a school. You want to know that graduates are able to find jobs as medical transcriptionists. Without a good chance at a job later on, why would you bother attending any medical transcription program?
Contact Information
Any good school will have a way for you to contact them even before you sign up. You should be able to get any of your questions answered about their program. Ideally this should include an email address or contact form, phone number and a mailing address.
Income Claims
While it's true that medical transcriptionists can earn a respectable living, some less than honest programs will make wild claims about what you can earn. Most medical transcriptionists do not earn $50 an hour, for example. The median is closer to $15, in fact. That's still good pay, and it's possible to earn more, but that's not going to happen right away.
Community
Good online schools these days offer an online community such as message boards for their students and graduates. This is where students can get help from their fellow students and participating faculty. It's also a resource for graduates to network, which can be highly valuable when you start looking for work.
